Crusty's Cinnamon Roll Focaccia

Hope you have a glass of milk ready

Focaccia is one of my favorite things to throw together in a pinch when I need some bread. I’ve made countless loaves of focaccia, experimenting with savory and sweet. Typically, I lean savory, but with a little chill in the air these days, I can’t help but want to make a cozy sweet bread.

This recipe is end to end ~5 hours, and can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dessert. I did all three!

Ingredients

Dough

360g A/P Flour

285g lukewarm water

20g olive oil

12g kosher salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp active dry yeast

Crumble Topping

70g brown sugar

3 tsp olive oil (subjective)

2 tbsp unsalted butter (softened)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp flour

Frosting

100g powdered sugar

30-40g milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Process

1. Add active dry yeast to a bowl with lukewarm water. Stir this and allow 2-5 mins for the yeast to dissolve and activate.

2. Add flour, olive oil, salt and sugar. Mix well (I use my stand mixer)

3. Allow to sit for 30 minutes.

4. Series of 3 stretch and folds.

   1. Every 30mins to 1 hour, pull the outsides of the dough to the middle and rotate the bowl. You can do this in quarters or fifths. After stretching and folding, cover and repeat.

5. On your last set of stretch and folds, add additional sugar and cinnamon on each fold. This will create layers of cinnamon and sugar inside of the dough.

6. Let dough rise (covered) for 1 hour.

7. Apply cooking spray to an 8-inch round cake pan, or a 8x8 square pan.

8. Add a drizzle of olive oil to the bottom of pan and tilt the pan to spread.

9. Place dough into pan and cover, letting rise for 1 hour. While dough rises, make the topping.

10. Topping

    1. Add brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon to a bowl and mix well.

    2. Add butter (cubed) and work dry mixture into flour. Should feel like wet sand by the end. You can use hands, wooden spoon, or rubber scraper.

11. Dough at this point should be VERY puffy. Drizzle remaining 3 tbsp of olive oil on top of dough and rub some onto hands. Create dimples using all 10 fingers in dough. Press softly but firmly to the bottom of pan. You’re attempting to create dimples without deflating the dough.

12. Sprinkle topping evenly on dough. Repeat dimpling process to press topping into dough.

13. Bake focaccia at 450 for 20 mins on lower rack of oven.

14. Frosting

    1. While focaccia bakes, combine powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla to a bowl. Mix well, adjusting ratio until frosting sticks to (but drips off of) a spoon.

15. Remove focaccia from oven and allow to cool in pan before removing from pan and cooling on a rack.

16. Optional: I like to apply the frosting in two steps. 1/3 of the frosting to the bread while its fresh out of the oven (this will create an even glaze that melts into crevices) and 2/3 once the bread is fully cooled. The second step will create the classic cinnamon roll frosting look.

17. Eat the entire thing in one sitting.